02/03/2015
OUR DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tinkers, like all things started out as an idea, just a passing thought. This passing thought however was spoken out loud, to a friend that asked the question " Why not?". "Time" was my initial answer, I was working a good job, and didn't have any. Little did I know that the company I was working for was selling out to the Chinese. So I would be out of that good job within 2 months.
Luckily my daughter was just weaned and my wife went back to work. My wife and I discussed the thought at length, and decided I should give it a try. We invested the last of our savings into buying a truck for business. Then with a lot of hard work I as able to supplement my wife's income. Things were going very well, we bought a house between 2 cities. This was great, more work opportunities for me and a direct trip to work for her.
Everything seemed to going quite smoothly for about 2 years. Then the township we lived in passed an ordinance that prohibited my type of business. I couldn't use the grandfather clause, because it requires 5 years of establishment. At this point we looked for another place for me to set up shop. Then my wife became ill and lost her job. Here we nearly lost everything. We had to move in with relatives 60 mile form the area.
Here I turned to all of our family and friends, and managed to get a small metal shop going. The hour though took a toll and my wife and I got a divorce. I went into a depression, but I kept working it's all I knew.
About a year later I moved to a new place that used wood heat. As I already used wood at the metal shop I just started cutting more wood there and carrying it home. The stockpile of wood at the shop attracted a lot of attention, so I started looking into selling wood as well as doing metal work. It turns out that the profit margin is much higher on selling wood. So I wrote a proposal and took it to the bank. There I secured a loan against the metal shop. I invested the money in the wood business. It took off rather well, and for the last few years it paid off the loan on double payments. This paid it off more quickly and with less interest.
During this time period I was able to hire some help. The first few people I hired came from other similar jobs, and were easily wooed away by more established companies. So I tried with younger people to help them get a foot in the door of employment. This was not much better, as their first payday would come along and the pay was enough to satisfy them for a month or more. That is when a friend suggested I check out the local jail. This worked great, and 2 of the guys I hired out of there went on to college.
That brings us up to July 2014. I knew the loan was almost paid off so I checked the payoff and had just enough to cover it and keep 2 weeks pay on hand. It was my decision and my mistake, and I made it. Of course Murphy was right there too. Monday the 7th, 1 of my guys and I went to pick up a load of raw material, and the trailer broke down. The retrieval cost the last of the money I had in the bank.So I had to layoff all my help.
This is were I turn to you. I need your help. I want to put my employees back on the payroll and get Tinkers back on her feet again. I have set a place where you can help.. Here it is http://imraising.com/stan/ thank you in advance for any help you can give, even if all you can do is send your friends here to look at this page.https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tinkers/183772538302523?ref_type=bookmark
